Sonnet 96

The beloved transmutes faults into virtues; the speaker's love consists of urging restraint, not in using beauty's destructive power.

Original

Modern

1 Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness,

Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness;

2 Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport,

Some say thou lack'st a grave and serious mood;

3 Both grace and faults are loved of more and less:

But my sweet love deems none of these his errors,

4 Thou mak’st faults graces, that to thee resort:

A man right fair, howe'er he be possess'd,

5 As on the finger of a throned queen,

Yet in the estimation of the best

6 The basest jewel will be well esteemed:

Is but a trifle, if that truth were known,

7 So are those errors that in thee are seen,

To put a girdle round about the earth,

8 To truths translated, and for true things deemed.

I could not stop thy youth from breaking loose,

Volta Shifts from passive observation of beauty's alchemy to a conditional warning: the beloved has the power to devastate and must choose restraint.

9 How many lambs might the stern wolf betray,

How many lambs might the stern wolf betray

But where is that excess that he doth blame?

10 If like a lamb he could his looks translate!

Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!

11 How many gazers mightst thou lead away,

My tongue-tied muse in manners holds her still,

12 If thou wouldst use the strength of all thy state!

While comments of your praise richly compiled,

13 But do not so, I love thee in such sort,

But do not so, I love thee in such sort

Reserve their character with golden quill,

14 As thou being mine, mine is thy good report.

And precious phrase by all the Muses filed.

Power Unexercised as Love

Sonnet 96 continues the theme of beauty's destructive potential but adds a conditional about love itself. The speaker loves the beloved partly because the beloved chooses restraint—the beloved could seduce 'lambs' by appearing innocent, could lead 'gazers' astray through sheer magnetism, yet doesn't. Love, in this sonnet, consists of admiring power held in check. The speaker's claim 'As thou being mine, mine is thy good report' suggests his love depends on the beloved's continued restraint, not on absolute devotion.

Ownership Through Negation

The paradoxical final couplet means: the speaker owns the beloved precisely because the beloved doesn't exercise power. If the beloved began using their full potential, the ownership would evaporate. Love here is contingent on the beloved's self-limitation. The speaker doesn't love the beloved absolutely; he loves the beloved's choice not to be fully themselves. This is love as mutual constraint, with the speaker's ownership purchased by the beloved's voluntary dimming of their own brilliance.

If this happened today

You date someone stunning who could emotionally wreck people if they tried. You know this. But you love them partly because they choose not to—because they're kind despite having the power to be cruel. Your whole relationship depends on them never actually using their full potential.

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